Is the Nokia G20 Cheap and Still Spectacular?
Nokia’s whole smartphone lineup for 2021 is focused on one thing: reliability. HMD Global, the brand’s current creative partner, has tapped on a lingering fondness for Nokia’s simple, uncomplicated feature phones.
To that end, the Nokia G20 is well-made, long-lasting, environmentally responsible, and refreshingly devoid of unnecessary software frills. Meanwhile, at this price, two years of guaranteed software updates to the most recent Android software delivers an extraordinary level of future-proofing.
It’s also very reasonable, at £134.99/€169/US$199, putting it in direct rivalry with the Moto G10.
Is there, nevertheless, any room for a little fun among all this worthiness? Should Nokia’s smartphone efforts be a little more loose?
Design and Build
The Nokia G20 is a simple, utilitarian bit of kit. I wouldn’t call it big at 164.9 x 76 x 9.2mm, and nor is it particularly light at 197g. But it’s a shade smaller and lighter than the Moto G10, at any rate.
It’s surprisingly pleasant to wield, too. That’s partly due to HMD’s choice of a textured finish for the plastic rear cover, which is a refreshing difference from the usual smooth, shiny, fake-glass rear panels found at this price point.
It not only looks good, but it also improves the phone’s grip and reduces the problem of greasy fingerprints.
The Nokia G20 feels quite robust in the hand, as it has in the past. When you press the middle of that textured back, there’s a little give and flex, but it doesn’t feel cheap.
The model I received is in the Night color, which has a deep midnight blue hue to it. The white Glacier variant, I assume, isn’t nearly as subtle or elegant, but it’s an alternative if you choose.
When you get your first notice or unlock the phone for the first time, that exquisite hand feel is somewhat ruined. The haptics are large, hazy, and rattling.
On the front of the phone, you’ll see an increased chin bezel and an old-school teardrop notch, which is rather typical of an entry-level phone. It’s not particularly appealing, but it’s also not an ugly.
Display and Screen
Even in 2021, you should have realistic expectations for a sub-£150 smartphone. The Nokia G20’s display, on the other hand, left me a little dissatisfied.
It isn’t the 6.52in screen size, which is ample, nor the fact that it has an LCD display. For this money, it would be ridiculous to expect OLED.
It’s not even the fact that this display’s refresh rate is only 60Hz. True, there are lots of phones under £200 with 90Hz and even 120Hz displays, but it still means a 20 to 40% increase in price.
With auto-brightness turned off, this screen doesn’t get very bright (about 400 nits), but it’s bright enough in all but the brightest outside conditions. Similarly, color fidelity is good for the money, with 83.9 percent sRGB gamut coverage. Spend more money to improve.
The fact that the Nokia G20 display doesn’t even reach a Full HD resolution is the primary source of disappointment here. Instead, you’ll have to make up with 720×1600, or HD+.
Storage and Performance
The Nokia G20 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G35 processor with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Overall, that’s a disappointing offering, and there isn’t a higher-spec model available.
Even before I get into the benchmark results, it’s clear that this phone is slow. Even basic navigation operations like unlocking the phone, booting up and switching apps, or moving between home screens have a sluggish, wallowy feel to them.
Camera
With the Nokia G20, Nokia hasn’t fully pulled back its photography offerings, which is a good thing. On paper, a 48MP wide sensor with an f/1.8 aperture looks good, and you also get a 5MP ultra-wide lens.
These are backed up by 2Mp macro and depths sensors, but let’s discard those as frills.
That 5Mp ultra-wide isn’t all that impressive. I noticed ghosting on a simple shot of some swans on an overcast but still bright day, as if they’d entered Matrix-style bullet-time.
However, the ultra-wide sensor is generally more drab and less detailed than the wide sensor, especially at the frame’s edges. In good lighting, the main camera is at least capable of taking some reasonably balanced shots.
Night mode shots keep the scene’s tone, but they’re generally murky and grainy, and they don’t brighten things up much.
Fast Charge and Battery Life
The Nokia G20 has a 5050mAh battery, which is larger than typical for a smartphone but not uncommon among low-cost devices. For example, the Moto G10 and Moto G30 both have 5000mAh batteries.
Still, it’s a wonderful addition, and when combined with the power-saving 720p display, you shouldn’t have any concerns.
In my experience, I had upwards of 60% left in the tank after a 16-hour day of light to moderate usage, with more than 3 hours of screen-on time. That’s a fantastic result.
However, more intensive usage depletes the battery quickly. The PCMark battery test, which simulates ordinary tasks for a lengthy period of time, yielded a score of 11 hours and 45 minutes.
Price and Availability
In the US you can buy it for $199 and costs £134.99/€169. ₦76,000 for the 4GB + 64GB of storage model in Nigeria and 14,500 in India.